On July 9th, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are participating in Down Syndrome LA’s TwentyWonder event in Los Angles at The Doll Factory. All proceeds will benefit individuals born with Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome) living in greater Los Angeles. Check out more information at twentywonder.org.

For Dr. Martens 50th Anniversary, they asked 10 artists to record their version of a cult classic track which represents the spirit of the people who’ve worn the shoes over the past 50 years. The company also asked 10 directors to make videos for each of the tracks. The latest release is Black Rebel Motorcycle Club who are covering ‘Dirty Old Town’ by The Pogues. Download the track for free at 50.drmartens.com/free-mp3s.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are giving fans a taste of their live show with the release of their new CD/DVD, ‘Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Live’. Watch the California rockers run through four fan favorites, including ‘Berlin’ and ‘Weapon of Choice’ via AOL below.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club guitarist Peter Hayes spoke with Time Off magazine about the group’s efforts to throw listeners a curveball within their four releases, starting with a garage rock sound on their self-titled debut in 2001 and their sophomore disc ‘Take Them On, On Their Own’ in 2003, only to go acoustic on ‘Howl’ in 2005 only to return to their original sound with ‘Baby 81’ on last year’s fourth release.

“Yeah, I can see how it was a little surprising,” Hayes said regarding the ‘Howl’ genre hiccup. “A little. We’re of the opinion that we’ve given everybody fair warning as far as ‘Howl’ and anything like that. When we came out and were hailed as ‘Jesus and Mary Chain wannabes’, we heard that in maybe one or two songs, so I was, like, ‘Okay, that’s fair. Not that fair’. I sort of saw it as a disrespect to them, rather than being offensive to us. But at the same time we’d be doing interviews and talking about being fans of Sam Cooke and Johnny Cash and lots of different types of thing. We’ve got a lot of different stuff that we do, but in interviews it was always, ‘Well, that’s a really cute thing to say, but you really just like this band don’t you?’. So we kind of put our money where our mouth is – all we’ve ever wanted to do is play the music that we like.” The article at timeoff.com.au has since been removed.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club performing at one of the ‘Summer Series’ events at Somerset House on Wednesday (July 18) in London, England. Check out pictures from FilmMagic and WireImage. Watch fan filmed highlight clips from YouTube.